1st day

Today was Kayla's 1st day at kinda. And Miles 1st day in day care.

Miles woke up at 5.30am! "Great" I thought, now he wont go to sleep until 9, which is the time to drop him off).
Kayla slept in until nearly 8am! Woot! Go Kayla, and I had do drama's with her with her cloth nappy (I want to get rid of plastic nappies for good, so she needs to get use to the idea of cloth at night). Hmm wait she must have slept to around 7.30, because I remember putting miles to bed around 7.30. He was sooking about it but he fell asleep, thank god. So we left around 9.30 to go to day care. I dropped Miles off and he was off playing, you could tell he was like 'ooh new toys to play with'. Then I took Kayla down to the kinda room. It wasn't an official kinda day (which was lame really), just an interview, but it wasn't an interview. I filled out some paper work and Kayla just played, did lots of craft and drawings and paintings. Oh she is going to love it!
Got a free hat, kayla picked a red one, good choice I say. I might pick her up a jumper or a t-shirt. I think a jumper might get more wear though. Oh we'll see.

Once kayla's intro session was over we went home and had lunch. Kayla was so cute she was like 'we go get mile' so 12.30 we left and went to pick up Miles. When we were walking down the corridor, I could hear a baby sooking, as I got closer, I saw it was Miles. He had seen us and was so happy he just wanted mum straight away. He was so happy to see both of us, gave me cuddles, and he gave kayla a pat on the head. He had a great time. So much so he got yogurt all in his hair... yeah seriously all in his hair. That boy loves his yogurt, just like his sister. Carers said he had a great time, didn't like wearing his hat though while they were outside though. Kayla was the same (until we got her a dora hat), so I'm hoping Miles will eventual learn to like wearing hats.

We got home and had snacks all round. Miles went to bed around 2, and didn't wake up until 3.30ish. Then we all got into swimmers... well I did, they got into undies (their swimmers were being washed) and had a play in the wading pool, it was so refreshing, it's so nice to have.

So next wednesday they will both be in care, and I'll have the morning to myself. now what to do wednesday mornings. Might go for a swim.

Day 33 - 2nd Feb 2010

It was a hot on here 35 degrees and boy did we feel it! I need to get the pipe replaced on the portable air con so we can use it in the living room. That's on my list of things to do.... I swear it's never ending :p
It's just as well we have a lil pool. We all jumped in and had a play. Then Miles started to sook, and sook super bad. There were 2 reasons why he was sooking. 1 he was thirsty and wanted boob. 2. He had done a poo (he was wearing a nappy so it's not like the poo went all over the pool/water).
So after a feed and a bum change we were all sitting down at the back (aka the real front of the house), and having a snack. This is where I took these photo's.


I just love the looks on there faces. Kayla looks like she is so bored and is just sitting there have a smoko (she's not she was eating a noodle snack).
And then there is Miles, with noodles all over him, dirt, and best of all booger snail trails lol.
I did little to no editing on this one. I tried different techniques but it just was't working, so I decided to just leave it as is. (slightly adjusted levels, but that's it).


This is the other image. I like the simplicity of it. Oh and yes Miles is wearing a cloth nappy. Yes I do cloth in this house, and yes I know you may think that I'm crazy, but I'm saving the world one nappy at a time. And no it's not extra work washing nappies.
This is the brand of nappies that Miles is wearing.

Photo editing

I want to show you a good example where photo editing can improve an image.

This shot (of my daughter) was taken at Charlotte's 1st birthday party.

SOOC (straight out of camera)

I have done no edits (besides resizing for the web)
Colours are cold and exposure is wrong.

Final

To get to this final stage, I adjusted the temperature, brightness, saturation. I also applied a photoshop action

Yes I have lost some detail of the building on the left but imo it's no loss.

Time to Celebrate!

On the weekend I got to visit a friend of mine who lives in Packenham. It was her daughters 1st birthday. (Well the party at least, she 'officially' turns 1 today 2nd Feb).

Brought my camera along and had fun photographing Charlotte. She has different expressions to my kids, and it also gives me practice and I need all the practice and experience I can get!

I cleaned most of these up in photoshop and applied different techinques to make each photography pop.






I need to fix the background in this one, as it's too noisy imo.

Day 32 - 1st Feb 2010

Ok well there are going to be 2 images.

1 day 32, and 2, day 31 substitute as I missed my Australia week theme photo.


Day 32 - we were playing outside in the sandpit. For once the wind was blowing Kayla's hair out of her face not into her face. I got some great images. I really like this one. I had to crop it just a little as there was something distracting and it was taking it away from the image, but I still kept the portions.
I was really happy with the photo's I took. I was using manual mode, and I found that I had to over expose all the images by 1 stop for them to look good. Why? Because the light meter was reading the light in the background (was brighter), and not the foreground (this would be the umbrella of the sand pit). I did take a couple of images with the correct metering, but they were just all underexposed in the face.

Day 32 aka day 31 is the clothes line. Now why is this Australian? Because it is an aussie thing to have a Hills Hoist clothes line in the backyard. Ok so it's not the old school metal ones (they don't make them anymore :( but I does fit with the Australia week theme.



*Edit
for more info on the Hills Hoist click here

Day 31 - 31st Jan 2010

Went to a friends daughters 1st birthday party in Packenham (about 3 1/2 hours drive from us). With the weekend that I had I didn't keep to the theme, but I did take a photo.

the cake

Day 30 - 30th Jan 2010

Well in my previous post I said that my work was crap. Still kinda is and I need to improve, so I will keep photographing.

Day 30's image is that of a pod. Of an aussie tree, don't ask what type cause I have no idea.

Not the best but fits with Australia week.